14 waves so far: 2009-23; includes BHPS data 1991-2009
Ethnic minority boost samples; Innovation Panel
Very wide range of topics covered:
Employment, income, benefits, savings, debt, and assets
Health, well-being, and health behaviours
Housing, housing costs, and dwelling characteristics
Family, partnerships, caring responsibilities,
Education, training
Expenditure, consumption, deprivation
Social attitudes, values, political opinions
Transport, mobility, and commuting patterns
Environmental behaviours, and related attitudes
Other studies
Next Steps (formerly Longitudinal Study of Young People in England - LSYPE):
16,000 people in England born 1980-90, from secondary school age (i.e. 13-14) onwards;
Initially set up by DfE to examine determinants of school achievement
ELSA (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing):
Follows a sample of 19,000 people aged over 50 to understand all aspects of ageing in England.
Started in 2002, biennial waves.
Data on physical and mental health (incl. well-being), financial circumstances, and attitudes about ageing.
Part 2
Overview
Administrative records
ie data collected by a public ie state controlled authority: government department, the NHS
Health: NHS, SHS: medical records ie outpatient attendance, hospitalisation episodes, maternity
Education: National Pupil Database, school profile/teacher survey; student loan data, OFSTED data
Pollution; green space deciles; PAYE data
Non survey measurement: energy consumption, health, behavioural
Social media/digital trace
What is on offer: examples
1. Genetic risk data
Polygenic scores (PGI) about health and social outcomes
Probability of some outcomes given someone’s genetic traits
A vector of probabilities attached to respondents’ record according to their their genetic information
45 traits: ie health outcomes and behaviour; mental health and personality traits; Social outcomes
Available on the birth cohorts studies, ELSA & Next Steps
Subsamples limited to genetic ‘Europeans’
2. Hospital episodes data
NHS data about all hospital admissions in England.
Four datasets:
Episodes of using: Accident and Emergency ; Admitted Patient Care; Adult Critical Care; Outpatients
Mostly available for 2007/9-2023
Data on diagnosis, maternity, mortality, mental health, treatment’s length, deprivation etc.
Available for the NCDS Birth Cohort
3. School inspection data
OFSTED ‘State of the nation’: anonymised data on latest schools inspections outcomes of 22,000 open schools
Linked with the MCS, currently covers years 2005 to 2019
Data on a wide range of topics i.e.:
Quality of teaching, learning and assessment
Effectiveness of leadership and management
Pupils’ achievement (aggregated) (2005-2015)
Behaviour and safety of pupils (2005-2015)
4. NEST pension data
(National Employment Saving Trust)
Covers 1,000,000 employers, 11 millions employees
Linked to consenting Understanding Wave 11 respondents (about 12,000)
Data about:
Employer and employee characteristics
Current pension status
Pension contributions characteristics
5. Studies deposited on ReShare
Example: data about property characteristics linked to transaction ie price data
5,732,838 transactions in England and Wales, 79% of the total between 2011 and 2019,
Part 3
Searching for data
Secure datasets at the UK Data Service
UKDS Secure Lab
Access via encrypted web-based interface (<Citrix VPN technology)
No data download, access only from organisational desktop, in the UKDA Safe Room, one of the SafePods across the UK, and abroad via partner organisations
Outputs subject to Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC)
The application process
Application components
Project application
Accreditated researcher
Safe researcher training
Secure access user agreement
Secure Lab account setup
Safe researcher training
The course we recognise as valid for SecureLab access is the Safe Researcher training (SRT) course which covers:
Data security and personal responsibility including legal background, security model, breaches and penalties.
Statistical Disclosure Control – how to make statistical outputs safe and which principles are used.
Using the SecureLab – how to use the interface and how to prepare and request data imports and suitable statistical outputs
Secure access user agreement
Legally binding contract between the user, their organisation and the University of Essex
It is a per person, per organisation agreement.
Outlines the T&Cs of use of Secure Lab and includes:
The user has completed the mandatory SRT training.
Information about the user’s security responsibilities.